Many athletes and performers I work with often wrongly determine their self-worth by how successful they feel about their career. When an athlete performs well or feels successful, he or she can feel good about him or herself. But the opposite is also true: despair and low self-esteem results when this person does not perform well or view him or herself as a failure. Self-esteem is a core issue in my work because it affects every aspect of your life, not just dancing.

Ballerinas are especially vulnerable to this problem of attaching self-esteem to one